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Book cover for Forts, Floods, and Periglacial Features: Exploring the Pittsburgh Low Plateau and Upper Youghiogheny Basin
GSA Field Guide

Forts, Floods, and Periglacial Features: Exploring the Pittsburgh Low Plateau and Upper Youghiogheny Basin

Editor(s)
Joseph T. Hannibal
Joseph T. Hannibal
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Kyle C. Fredrick
Kyle C. Fredrick
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Geological Society of America
Volume
46
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1130/9780813700465
Copyright:
Geological Society of America
© Geological Society of America 2017 ISBN 9780813756462$9.99
ISBN electronic:
9780813756462
ISBN print:
9780813700465
Publication date:
January 01, 2017

This guidebook provides detailed itineraries of three of the geological field trips related to the 2017 joint meeting of the GSA Northeastern and North-Central Sections in Pittsburgh. The first chapter outlines a walking trip of downtown Pittsburgh and the escarpment to its south, consisting of seven “Pitt stops” investigating geological, archaeological, and historical aspects of the Gateway to the West. Venturing further afield, the second chapter describes a trip that explores periglacial features as far as the Upper Youghiogheny River basin in Maryland and the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania. The third chapter investigates hydrologic aspects of the 1889 Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flood, largely following the progress of the flood from its point of origin to the city of Johnstown.

Book Chapter

Pleistocene periglacial features of the Pittsburgh Low Plateau and Upper Youghiogheny Basin

Author(s)
Rebecca Kavage Adams
Rebecca Kavage Adams
Maryland Geological Survey, 2300 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
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;
Mark D. Swift
Mark D. Swift
Department of Music, Washington and Jefferson College, 60 S. Lincoln Street, Washington, Pennsylvania 15301, USA, and Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, 330 Brooks Hall, 98 Beechurst Avenue, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506, USA
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David K. Brezinski
David K. Brezinski
Maryland Geological Survey, 2300 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
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Steven J. Kite
Steven J. Kite
Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, 330 Brooks Hall, 98 Beechurst Avenue, West Virginia 26506, USA
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Doi:
https://doi.org/10.1130/2017.0046(02)
  • Published:
    January 01, 2017

Abstract

During the Pleistocene, the Laurentian Ice Sheet extended southward into western Pennsylvania. This field trip identifies a number of periglacial features from the Pittsburgh Low Plateau section to the Allegheny Mountain section of the Appalachian Plateaus Province that formed near the Pleistocene ice sheet front. Evidence of Pleistocene periglacial climate in this area includes glacial lake deposits in the Monongahela River valley near Morgantown, West Virginia, and Sphagnum peat bogs, rock cities, and patterned ground in plateau areas surrounding the Upper Youghiogheny River basin in Garrett County, Maryland, and the Laurel Highlands of Somerset County, Pennsylvania. In the high lying basins of the Allegheny Mountains, Pleistocene peat bogs still harbor species characteristic of more northerly latitudes due to local frost pocket conditions.

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